Bronte 2.3

Little Bronte's artisitic inclinations have really amped up in the last month or so. When we go to the Family Centre she runs immediately to the craft table, gluing leaves or bits of paper to toilet rolls, stringing paper beads onto a necklace, or brushing textured paint onto a cloud. She'll usually go over to the little easels later on during the drop-in & swipe some paint on paper, deliberately using each of the available colours of tempera.

Every day after breakfast, she asks me to get out her colouring book & the washable markers or crayons so she can scribble. She likes to colour in the eyes of the animals in the book & narrates what's happening in each picture as she's colouring. After a few minutes, she'll usually move on to decorating her fingertips with the caps of the markers & colouring on the backs & palms of her hands, or even her face. Thought it's generally a bit of a mess to clean up, I'm pretty thrilled that she shares my love of drawing & painting.

At our round of regular appointments with the Spinal Cord Clinic the pediatrician measured her height as 85.5cm & her weight at 14kg. She's actually gained about three kilos in the past year, but she's still slimming down into a kid shape from a chubby toddler. Also new since seeing the orthopedist: no more hip brace! Bronte's hips are still borderline in terms of the dysplasia, but we no longer have to fight her into the foam & velcro contraption every night. On everything else the specialists looked at, she's doing great.

Bronte still loves dogs more than almost anything & will spend as long as you let her patting them & playing with them. I'm very tempted to get a dog, but then I think about the additional work of daily walks, grooming, & dealing with yet another small creature's poop... I don't think we're quite ready yet.

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